Open Thread

Friday Open Thread [12.13.13]

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), says the health insurance exchanges will work, and will work well. Well, if that is case, that means Coburn believes that the exchanges will both lower the costs of health insurance so that it is affordable, while at the same time insuring the uninsured. So why he is against it? How can you be against something that both lowers the cost of health insurance and covers the uninsured?

Could it be that you oppose it because you think health insurance is a privilege for only those who can afford it?

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Wednesday Open Thread [12.11.13]

Since the Conservative Outrage Machine is in real silly season outrage mode today over the fact that President 1) showed respect and civility by shaking another head of state’s hand and 2) did not show respect and civility by posing for a funeral selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Danish Prime Minister, I feel a detour into music is warranted.

I always love these DJ Earworm mashups every year, and inside is his attempt for 2013. My reaction is meh. For some reason the songs don’t fit together as well this year. It’s a shame too, since this decade (what do we call it, the Teens?) has a very distinctive sound to its pop music, and that is the first time that has happened to music since the 80’s. I don’t know how to describe the sound, but come inside and listen to some songs and tell me you don’t hear it….

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Tuesday Open Thread [12.10.13]

Alex Seitz-Wald says the Newtown school shootings last year derailed President Obama’s second term agenda.

“Suddenly, priority No. 1 wasn’t immigration reform but gun control. The base that had just elected Obama was clamoring for background checks and magazine-clip restrictions, threatening to desert the president before his second inauguration… That meant immigration would have to wait. The clock was ticking on both gun control and immigration, but Democrats moved ahead with gun control first, recognizing that as the memory of the tragedy at Sandy Hook faded, so too would the impetus for new laws. The Senate spent months on a bill, which eventually got whittled down to a universal background-check provision, before it finally died at the hands of a Republican filibuster in mid-April.”

“In the process, the administration fatally, and irrevocably, antagonized the populist libertarian Right, the same people whom mainstream Republicans and Democrats needed to stay on the sidelines for immigration reform to succeed. By engaging in such an emotional, polarizing issue so early on, Obama poisoned the (admittedly shallow) well of goodwill and the willingness to compromise by Republicans before his term even began in earnest.”

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Sunday Open Thread [12.8.13]

President Obama knows how to pick good Secretaries of State. Doyle McManus:

He’s the same windy, stiff Bostonian who ran unsuccessfully for president a decade ago. And he’s taken on a list of assignments that looked distinctly unpromising: nuclear negotiations with Iran, peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the civil war in Syria.

But in 10 months, Kerry has embarked on a whirlwind of diplomacy. He helped conclude an interim deal with Iran that puts a ceiling on Tehran’s nuclear enrichment. He launched new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the goal of producing a deal next year. And he secured a date for negotiations to end the war in Syria, although it’s still not certain who will show up.

…give Kerry credit. He has dared to take big risks — in notable contrast to his revered but risk-averse predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton tended to subcontract out the unpromising assignments to special envoys like the late Richard C. Holbrooke, her deputy for Afghanistan. But Kerry has taken them on himself, personally and visibly. If any of them fail — and they all could — he’ll take the fall himself.

Dear God. The 2004 election was nearly a decade ago? Feels like yesterday. I am getting old.

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